Kurt Helin

Professional athletes gambling while traveling is far from some new issue — what do you think Babe Ruth did to pass the time on train rides, read? Today, when players travel by charter plane, card game gambling is commonplace. Fights over money won and lost are not uncommon (very few make it public). The latest…

Kevin Garnett will not be on the court when the Celtics take on the Spurs Wednesday at the TD Garden. Not that we should be reading much into January games in the first place, but that really squashes any thoughts of “the two best teams battle” giving us much to chew on. But Garnett is…

The list of bench players waived by teams this week continues to grow faster than the mold on the Christmas leftovers still in the back of your refrigerator (you really should throw those out now). Brian Skinner in Milwaukee, John Lucas III in Chicago, Ronald Dupree in Toronto, Ime Udoka in San Antonio, Damien Wilkins…

Doesn’t it seem like every January we need to have some discussion about how the Lakers are struggling, and this time it’s serious, that the omens are bad, that they can’t win a title playing like this, yada yada yada… It’s true, even after last night’s Lakers thumping of the hapless Pistons, if Los Angeles…

If you haven’t seen the video of the homeless Columbus, Ohio, man with the golden radio voice, where have you been? This video tells the story of Ted Williams, a Brooklyn native with this fantastic voice who fell down the hole of alcohol and drug abuse. It has been sweeping the Internet the past few…

Be clear about this — the Knicks earned their victory over the Spurs. For the first time seemingly in memory, the Knicks pushed an elite team into their game. The Knicks hit their shots (ones provided by unusually poor defense from the Spurs, but the Knicks hit them). They made the plays. It’s a signature…

Brook Lopez is not a terrible rebounder. He’s just a terrible rebounder for a guy who is 7-feet tall and spends his time hanging out near the basket. He’s averaging an uninspiring 8.6 rebounds per game. Or, look at it this way: so far this season, Lopez is bringing down about 10.4 percent of the…

Mark Cuban and Phil Jackson sure do enjoy a little verbal sparing with each other. The latest round started out seemingly innocently Sunday night, when Phil Jackson tried to say he thought the loss of Caron Butler would be a big blow to the Mavericks. Butler — who played for the Lakers but was traded…

We know you didn’t watch David Letterman last night because you were busy watching the Tonight Show, but if you had you could have caught Boston’s Shaquille O’Neal. trying to squeeze into a seat built for normal sized humans. Play the video below to see Shaq’s sport coat with a hoodie and his response when…

Tuesday night, O.J. Mayo was out of the Memphis lineup with what was officially called a case of bronchitis, but a swollen face may be the real cause. Mayo and teammate Tony Allen got into a fight over a debt from a card game on the team’s Sunday night flight and had to be separated…

What you missed while watching the video of the homeless guy with the golden pipes… Knicks 128, Spurs 115: Remember when the Spurs were a defensive team? Actually, they are still a pretty good defensive team — sixth best in the league in defensive efficiency this season — but they forgot how to play it…

We thought it looked like Blake Griffin was going to be in the All-Star Weekend dunk contest, and now that appears all but official. This 2011 dunk contest will feature the Clippers Blake Griffin, the Wizards’ JaVale McGee, the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka and the Bucks’ Brandon Jennings, according to the Los Angeles Times. The official…

Honestly, if Blake Griffin is not in the dunk contest the whole thing will fail before it even begins. Just like TRON. So good news in the form of a leaked then quickly pulled video found on NBA.com — Griffin may well be in. The link was found by the blog Get Banged On (a…

Losing Caron Butler is a blow to the Mavericks because he is just flat out good — good on the court, good in the locker room, good in the community. He had developed into a spot up shooter who found his gaps in the Mavs offense. Bottom line, Dallas was +7.4 points per 100 possessions…

Yes, Phil Jackson and Ron Artest had a confrontation during a recent practice, but to read much into that about the focus of the Lakers or the relationship between the two would be a mistake, Jackson said Tuesday night. Yahoo Sports first reported the conflict today, but Jackson said the report calling it a “loud”…

Phil Jackson is not a traditional coach on a lot of levels — not only the team meditation sessions and the triangle offense, but also how he handles players. For example, few coaches more willingly needle players through the media to make a point than Jackson. Some players couldn’t care less or at least get…

“We’re the two best white shooters in the NBA.” —Gilbert Arenas to J.J. Redick, via the twitter of Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel. For the record, the biggest mistake here is that Gilbert Arenas is not a great shooter. He ranks 143 in the league in eFG% (regular field goal percentage that accounts for…

There was going to come a day when the Lakers missed Jordan Farmar, and that day has arrived. I’m serious. Hear me out. In all the talk of what is wrong with the Lakers (2-4 in their last six and the SKY IS FALLING!) has been some discussion of “are the Lakers athletic enough?” The…

The Mavericks have been keeping this under wraps officially, but it was expected. Caron Butler underwent season-ending surgery Tuesday to repair a ruptured right patellar tendon, according to Art Garcia of NBA.com. It’s a sad thing to see happen to one of the better people in the NBA. And it’s going to be tough for…

Among the seemingly innumerable things LeBron James has been criticized for — from the legitimate to the ludicrous — was the complaint that he needed to let Cleveland know much farther in advance he was gone. If he was not coming back, he had an obligation to let them know so they could get something…

Michael Beasley has got the ball in his hands in Minnesota, creating his own shots and being the go-to guy. And thriving in that role. With one shot to tie the Boston Celtics Monday and send the game into overtime, the Timberwolves called Beasley’s number. Everyone in the building knew that’s what was going to…

You’d like to think Andray Blatche has been inconsistent this season because of injuries and the weight of trade rumors, but that would assume some basis of consistent play from his past to serve as a baseline. And no, the last couple months of the failing Wizards last season when they had to feed him…

Last week, during the hiatus in the Carmelo Anthony trade talks around the tragic death of his sister, Denver Nuggets officials reportedly said that before they traded Anthony they wanted to see him, Chauncey Billups, Nene, Kenyon Martin and the whole healthy Nuggets team together first. As if that might change Anthony’s mind. As if…

Ultimately, it is the doctors who get the final say on when Kendrick Perkins can return from a traumatic knee injury suffered during last June’s NBA Finals. Traumatic enough that seven months later he is finally back on the court working out but may be a month or more away from playing. Perkins reiterated to…

Just a few weeks ago, Suns owner Robert Sarver was saying emphatically that Steve Nash would not be traded. But since then the Suns have struggled — 3-7 in their last 10 — and however they try to spin it the recent trade with Orlando was not going to make the Suns better right now.…